“One of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known”

André Pratte has an absolutely devastating editorial in today’s La Presse, in which he essentially calls for an anti-Harper mutiny by cabinet ministers he otherwise lambastes “for having such a poor handle on their files, they unjustly make the federal government look profoundly incompetent.” You really should go read the thing for yourself, but here are some translated bits:

The controversy surrounding the terms of the census is typical of the pillaging the conservatives have engaged in since coming to power. Not only is their behaviour dictated by simplistic ideology, the Conservatives impose their politics while displaying a exceptional degree of incompetence.

A competent right-wing government would have asked Statistics Canada to do an in-depth comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory and optional census forms. It would have then submitted the proposed solution to consultation, as is done with all modifications to the census. Instead, the government decided to change its approach in spite of the reservations of Statistics Canada on the sole basis of phone calls to MPs’ constituency offices. School boards are run more seriously than that.

[…]

Before this government does even more harm to the institution that is the government of Canada, the intelligent people within the federal cabinet have a duty to rise up and stop the pillaging. Otherwise, the Harper government may be remembered as one of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known.

I think it’s probably safe to say Pratte would like to politely withdraw his paper’s 2006 endorsement of the Conservatives.